Saab dominates "Sexy green car show"

Despite the plethora of environmentally-friendly cars at The Sexy Green Car Show which opens at the Eden Project in St Austell, Cornwall next week, Swedish premium car maker Saab is confident that it will turn the rest of the event quite literally green with envy now that its entire range, including the iconic Saab 9-3 Convertible, is offered with the option of an eco-friendly engine.

Unlike other manufacturers, Saab does not have just one or two headline-grabbing green cars – uniquely, its whole model line-up can now be ordered with a choice of innovative ‘BioPower’ flex-fuel engines, some of which will be on show at Eden. Saab is the only volume car company in the UK able to make this claim.

Saab announced earlier this month the launch of the 9-3 BioPower range. These cars follow the tried and tested formula of the 9-5 BioPower range, which was launched in the UK 18 months ago. All Saab BioPower cars are flex-fuel, meaning that they can run on the eco-friendly yet potent fuel source bioethanol E85, standard unleaded petrol, or any mix of the two fuels.

All Saab BioPower cars report a reduction in their fossil CO2 emissions of between 50 and 70 per cent compared to equivalent petrol cars, whilst enjoying significant increases in performance. This is another claim unique to the independent-thinking Swedish brand: unlike other flex-fuel models, only Saab BioPower models enjoy an increase of up to 20 per cent in brake horsepower, due to the fact that Saab’s legendary expertise in turbocharging allows us to take advantage of bioethanol’s high octane rating.

As well as presenting the first public showing of the Saab 9-3 Convertible BioPower in the UK, and a Saab 9-5 Estate BioPower car at the Sexy Green Car Show, Saab will also be exhibiting the world’s first fossil-fuel free hybrid, the Saab 9-3 Convertible BioPower Hybrid Concept Car. This vehicle’s technology stunned the automotive world when it was unveiled in Stockholm one year ago, due to the fact that the car was the first in the world to combine pure bioethanol with electric power on demand, which means that it emits zero fossil CO2 emissions, and was the world’s first hybrid soft-top at the time of its unveiling.

The Sexy Green Car Show, thought to be the first of its kind, will be open to the public from March 30th to April 15th 2007. Admission is free with entry to Eden. It will be open from 10am to 6pm with last entry at 4.30pm.